American tea culture

American Tea Culture refers to the methods of preparation and means of consumption of tea in the United States.

Afternoon tea, as a meal, is rarely served in the United States except in ritualized special occasions such as the tea party or an afternoon out at a high-end hotel or restaurant, which may also have cream teas on the menu. In the U.S. south, tea can be served at all meals and throughout the day as an alternate to other beverages. In the United States, about 80% of the tea consumed is served cold, or "iced". Iced tea is more frequently consumed during periods of hot weather or in lower latitudes, and hot tea is likewise more common in colder weather. Any confusion when one is visiting different parts of the country can easily be solved by explicitly asking for either "hot tea" or "iced tea."

History

During the colonial period, tea and tea taxes were a bone of contention between the American Colonies and Britain. This led to the Boston Tea Party, a precipitating event of the American Revolution, where angry Colonists destroyed the tea cargo of three British ships by dumping them into Boston Harbor. Boycotts of tea by the colonists during this period led to an increase in consumption of other beverages, such as coffee or herbal tea. To this day, coffee remains more popular than tea in the United States; however the average US citizen consumes roughly 7.8 gallons of tea a year as of 2000 [http://www.luzianne.com/more_icedtea_facts_II.cfm] .

Iced tea

Iced tea is usually prepared from bagged tea. In addition to tea bags and loose tea, powdered "instant iced tea mix" is available in stores. This is made by preparing tea and then dehydrating it, similar to instant coffee. Iced tea can be purchased, like soda, in canned or bottled form at vending machines and convenience stores; usually, this pre-made tea is sweetened with corn syrup, and sometimes some other flavoring, such as lemon or raspberry, is added. Also, like other soft drinks, it can be purchased as a fountain drink, though in some establishments it is pumped from a Bag-In-Box, and in others, from a separate container near the fountain that contains freshly brewed tea.

In restaurants, iced tea is usually served unsweetened except in the Southern United States where iced tea is much more common and is available both sweet and unsweetened and "iced tea" is often considered to be "sweet tea" unless otherwise specified. The reason for the presweetening is that it may be difficult to dissolve sugar in iced tea, even with constant stirring. The result can be insufficiently sweetened tea and/or gritty, undissolved sugar crystals in the tea. Some restaurants have begun serving iced tea that has been pre-flavored with fruit essences, particularly passion fruit, often as the only iced tea made available.

Iced tea's popularity in the United States has led to an addition to standard flatware sets; the iced tea spoon is a standard flatware teaspoon, but with a long handle, suitable for stirring sugar into the taller glasses commonly used for iced tea.

Tea bags

Thomas Sullivan is credited with inventing tea bags in 1908. Sullivan, a New York tea importer, inadvertently invented tea bags when he sent tea samples to clients in small silk bags to cut costs, and they mistakenly steeped the bags whole.

The customers were interested in the silk bags instead of the tea. Sullivan did not realise this until they all started to complain that the orders they received were not in the bags the samples had been in. Silk was too expensive for bagging; therefore, he invented tea bags made of gauze.

The nylon pyramidal teabag containing tea leaf fragments instead of the tea 'detritus" or dust made an appearance in the marketplace for afficiandos. The pyramidal shape allows more room for the leaf to steep. Environmentalists prefer silk to nylon because of the health and biodegradable issues. [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/13/dining/13tea.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print]

Most tea sold in the United States is sold in bags.

Instant tea

In 1946, Nestle USA introduced the first instant tea, Nestea. Instant teas are produced from black tea by extracting the liquor from processed portion of tea typically from tea wastes or undried fermented leaves. The extract is concentrated under low pressure, and drying the concentrate to a powder by freeze-drying, spray-drying, or vacuum-drying. Low temperatures tend to be used to minimise loss of flavour.

Revival of fine teas

In the 1980s a revival of fine hot teas occurred in the United States. Prior to this time most tea available in the US was blended specifically for iced tea with the quality of not discolouring when iced and cost as the primary desired qualities, even over taste. Most ice tea blends are derived from Argentine tea plantations, which has a discernibly different taste than black teas blended from Indian and Chinese stocks. This blend is often referred to as American blend by tea companies to differentiate it from other blends sometimes referred to as fine teas.Ironically, iced tea is an extremely unpopular drink in Argentina and can usually be found neither in cans nor in powder nor in restaurants.

Traditionally, red and white teas were difficult to find in the United States, and even green tea was uncommon; however, they have recently become more popular. Recently, many coffee houses have begun to serve a milky, sweet, spiced tea called "chai", based on Indian masala chai. Bubble tea from Taiwan has also become popular in the United States in recent years. This beverage contains sweet tapioca pearls, which settle to the bottom of the glass or cup prior to serving.

Varieties of tea

Currently, there is a revival of many varieties of black teas throughout the United States. Additionally, other exotic teas (such as the vast variety of Asian teas) and different brewing styles are becoming more commonplace. See Tea Culture for more information.

Varieties popular in the United States presently include:
*Earl Grey
*English Breakfast tea
*Irish Breakfast tea
*Russian Caravan
*"Lipton" (essentially a generic term for "regular" tea)
*and many others.

Decaffeinated tea is widely available in the United States, for those who wish to reduce the physiological effects of caffeine.

U.S. regional tea traditions

"Sweet tea", with sugar or corn syrup added (usually while the tea is still hot from brewing), the mixture then being cooled with ice, is ubiquitous in the core Southern United States. In these states, when a person says "tea", he or she normally means sweetened iced tea. The unsweetened variant is often called "unsweet" tea instead of unsweetened or plain. The consumption of sweet tea with many meals leads to it sometimes called the "table wine of the South" and this trait is considered an important marker of the culture of the Southern United States.ref|# Southern sweet tea is made by brewing tea at double strength, adding a large amount of sugar to the freshly-brewed hot tea, and diluting to the proper strength. It is served over a glass full of ice cubes and is often garnished with a slice of lemon. While corn syrup is commonly used as a sweetener for commercially manufactured tea, purists detest the use of anything other than refined sugar.

In the Northern United States, "tea" generally means the hot beverage.

In Texas and much of the Western United States, iced tea almost always means freshly-brewed "unsweetened" tea, generally served in a tall glass and garnished with a lemon wedge. Sweeteners are then added by the customer (or not) according to taste. Free refills are standard in most restaurants.

"Sun tea" is frequently brewed in temperate areas by placing tea and water together in a glass jar left outdoors in direct sunlight. Steeping times are necessarily long. Tea may also be brewed with no heat at all by simply immersing the tea bags or infuser in room-temperature water and allowing a period of several hours (typically overnight) for steeping. Since sun brewing occurs in a temperature range that promotes the development of bacteria, particularly "Alcaligenes viscolactis", the Centers for Disease Control and the National Tea Association suggest brewing sun tea in the refrigerator, and discarding it after 24 hours.

Alcoholic "tea"

The so-called Long Island Iced Tea usually contains no tea; it is an alcoholic cocktail that looks like and (if made correctly) tastes similar to iced tea. A variant recipe uses actual iced tea as a mixer.

A lesser known (at least in the United States) alcoholic tea called "Green Dragon Tea" is the result of steeping marijuana in alcohol for a period of time. An adequately high proof alcohol (at least 80 proof) is required to sufficiently leech the THC from the marijuana leaves, buds, and stems. The tea is very intoxicating resulting from both the high THC content and the high proof alcohol.

References and further reading

# Charles Reagan Wilson and William Ferris, eds. "Encyclopedia of Southern Culture." Chapel Hill, NC, USA: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1989.